"It's here..."
The words left Kein's lips like a whisper torn from the edge of disbelief.
Floating in front of him, suspended mid-air, shimmering like a ghost of circuitry, was a translucent blue screen.
An interface not born of any machine in the current era. It pulsed gently, almost as if it was breathing.
It wasn't projected by a device, nor reflected on glass. It simply was, as if reality itself had opened its eyes to speak to him.
The glowing interface cast a faint silvery hue over his dim apartment walls, painting his face in a strange, unearthly light.
> [Congratulations! You have been chosen as the 0-000-000-923rd person to Awaken.]
His breath hitched.
The room felt colder now. Not from temperature, but from knowing. The kind of knowing that thinned the air, made it harder to breathe. As if the very act of receiving this message was a step across a threshold that no one else could see—except those who had also crossed.
He reached out instinctively, fingertips hovering inches away from the floating message, but his hand passed through it. No heat, no resistance. It wasn't made of light, nor was it holographic—it felt like it was stitched directly into reality. Into him.
He slowly sat on the edge of his worn mattress, cold sweat crawling down his spine as his thoughts spiraled.
This… This couldn't be happening.
Except it was.
He remembered the exact moment the world changed. Not just the news stories or the chaos—it was in the air, like the frequency of the Earth had shifted. Since that day, it had felt like the stars had been watching differently. And now, here was proof.
Just a few days ago, on an ordinary evening like any other, everything suddenly changed.
On June 13th, 2028, the world had paused.
Not in panic. Not in war. But in eerie, synchronized silence.
Screens across the globe—phones, laptops, satellites, even airplane dashboards—sputtered, then dimmed to a dead black. Then, from every interface imaginable, one by one, they lit up again, not with images or video, but with the same universal message bordering its flickering circuit-like glyphs:
> [Humanity's Slumber Ends. The Awakening Begins on the 18th of June, 2028. Prepare.]
No known source. No sender. And yet, it was everywhere—on broken screens, even on analog billboards. People reported seeing it in mirrors, in puddles, even in their dreams.
Some called it a hack. Others a divine sign. There were stories of entire forests falling silent as birds stopped chirping and animals froze, staring into nothing as if they too had received the message.
Then everything returned to normal—on the surface at least.
It took five whole minutes, before it vanished.
That was all it lasted.
That was all it took to fracture the world.
Governments went on high alert. News networks looped the footage. Scientists were baffled, arguing over quantum interference and mass hallucinations.
Others weren't so lucky—there were reports of people collapsing into seizures mid-message. Some never woke up.
Chaos quickly spread like wildfire. Riots broke out. Markets collapsed. Military forces deployed. Theories filled the air like static—aliens, AI singularity, god-code activation, ancient prophecy.
Someone even theorized it was the planet itself awakening, rejecting its parasite host.
Religious leaders declared it divine revelation and started masses. The internet, ravenous for mystery and memes, swallowed the online forum whole, giving birth to a thousand theories overnight.
Some groups even formed cults overnight—worshipping the message, offering "preparations" through blood or code.
And Kein? He had laughed it off, of course. Just another flash-in-the-pan global scare.
Another hoax. Another global panic. Another marketing stunt, maybe.
Life went on. He still had bills to pay, food to scavenge, and dreams to bury.
He still had the bruises on his hands from working odd tech-repair jobs in the underground alleys of Lunaris, trying to keep from starving. No mystical screen could erase that.
But now, with this floating system before him, pulsing with unseen power and whispering to the edges of his mind, laughter was the furthest thing from his lips.
Out of 8 billion humans, he was the 923rd to awaken.
A number so impossibly small it felt like he had been struck by lightning twice while holding a winning lottery ticket during an eclipse.
But the pain in his chest told him it was.
Because at that moment, a golden thread of light emerged from the screen and burrowed into the center of his body.
It didn't pierce—it merged. Like it recognized him.
For a moment, he felt assembled.
Then he gasped.
His knees felt weak. He stumbled back into the edge of his unmade bed, barely catching himself. His heart thundered like a war drum. This couldn't be real.
The warmth spread outward like a rising tide—first his chest, then his arms, his legs, his spine. He felt his senses bloom. He could hear the flickering bulb in the hallway outside. Smell the rain through closed windows. Taste metal in the back of his throat.
> [Initializing System Interface… Biomechanical Signature Detected… Syncing Vital and Synthetic Attributes…]
The screen was no longer a screen. It was inside him now. Somewhere behind his eyes, or maybe in his nerves. He could feel it—an architecture being constructed in real time. Like an operating system being installed into his soul.
It was like something was crawling through his bones—cataloging him, measuring him, rewriting something. The room dimmed. Or maybe his vision sharpened. He couldn't tell.
Then, another line appeared. Bold. Final.
> [Welcome to the Path of the Awakened. You are now bound to the World System.]
Kein's breath hitched. What the hell was a "World System"? Why him? What was this even for?
He gasped as the apartment seemed to dim, or perhaps his vision sharpened. He could feel his nerves buzzing. His senses twisted—stronger, sharper, almost mechanical.
"What is this…?" Kein whispered, standing slowly. He felt heavier. Stronger. Like gravity itself had taken notice of him more than usual.
Kein's mouth went dry.
"World… System?"
The words felt unnatural on his tongue, like he was speaking a language meant for gods and monsters.
His voice echoed slightly, distorted—as if the world had started to listen.
He staggered to the cracked window and looked out.
Outside, the city of Lunaris still stood. Rain glazed the rooftops like liquid glass. Neon lights shimmered in alleyways. Cars crawled by. Life looked normal.
But he knew—instinctively, deep in his marrow—that everything had changed.
There was something about the way the rain sounded now. Each drop hit with more clarity, like the system had recalibrated his perception.
Somewhere out there, 922 people had already received this same screen. Already chosen. Already Awakened.
And now he was one of them.
But chosen for what?
A low chime echoed in the air, like a distant bell tolling in his soul.
> [Please choose your Class.]
Three icons unfolded on the screen, each flickering with strange glyphs and names he didn't recognize, but somehow understood.
> [Class Selection Locked Upon Contact. Choose Wisely.]
His throat tightened. There was no going back now. The decision wasn't just personal—it felt cosmic.
...
[Dreadnought Bastion]: "Be the wall. Be the weapon."
A living fortress of biomechanical armor, unmatched in raw endurance and devastation.
Advantages: Very tough and hard to kill – Strong melee attacks and shockwaves – Can shield allies – Built-in weapon upgrades.
Disadvantages: Slow and heavy – Uses lots of energy – Weak against EMPs or tech disruption – Not good at long-range combat.
...
[Corpse Knight]: "Command the dead. Become the machine."
A fusion of reanimated flesh and tech-forged steel, commanding death-bound drones and necro-mech constructs.
Advantages: Can summon necro-mech minions – Heals by absorbing materials – Strong in ruined or death-filled areas – Spreads fear to enemies.
Disadvantages: Relies on minions – Weak alone – Some may fear or hate you – Body may malfunction in clean or holy zones.
...
[Techno Reclaimer]: "The Earth remembers. The Scrap obeys."
A subterranean tactician born from scavenged ruins, capable of terra-warping, drone hacking, and forging weapons from earth and scrap.
Advantages: Shapes terrain to trap or defend – Builds weapons and drones from scrap – Great for ambushes – Mobile and stealthy underground.
Disadvantages: Needs materials to fight well – Less durable than others – Slower to set up abilities – Weaker in cities with no natural ground.
...
Kein's eyes widened, breath catching in his throat.
These weren't classes from any game.
They were war forms. Engineered destinies. Templates for survival in a world that was about to unravel.
His mind raced through possibilities. What enemies would he face? What dangers had caused a system like this to exist in the first place?
His hand moved on its own, fingers reaching toward the selection panel.
> [Class Selection Locked Upon Contact. Choose Wisely.]
Outside, the thunder of distant engines roared—a sound he couldn't place. Not a car. Not a plane. Something older. Heavier.
The Awakening had begun.
And the machines of the old world were waking with it. Pulsing with power that called to his soul like a forgotten memory.
His fingers trembled as he reached out.
Because this was only the beginning.
And something out there—beyond the cities, beyond the clouds, beyond the stars—was watching.
"I choose..."